


Full Circle

by rilina



Category: Naruto
Genre: Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-08-24
Updated: 2006-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 08:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rilina/pseuds/rilina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto's search for answers brings him back to his origins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Full Circle

**Author's Note:**

> For 64damn_prompts theme #56: the beginning is the end is the beginning.

Naruto is not entirely surprised to discover that it’s still all too easy to sneak into the Hokage’s office. After all, he had managed it easily enough when he was twelve and stupid, without a hitae-ite to his name; now a jounin of seventeen, he probably could have accomplished the feat with his eyes closed if it hadn’t been for that set of trip wires. And that had been easy enough to avoid once he looked for traps with the kyuubi’s eyes.

The office looks very much as it did when Naruto was a brat pulling pranks on the Third; the Fifth has done little to imprint her personality upon it during her years in office. There’s an extra portrait on the wall, a lipstick-marked cup on the desk, the lingering scent of Tsunade’s usual perfume. But the cabinet of scrolls still stands where it’s always stood, in the corner farthest from the windows, and it’s still secured by a padlock that any shinobi worth their salt could undo.

Naruto grins as he pulls his set of lock picks from his pocket. Even at seventeen, he’s amused whenever something he learned at school turns out to be useful.

Two twists of his wrists, and the lock clicks open. The forbidden scroll sits on the third shelf; it’s smaller than Naruto remembers from that time with Mizuki, but Naruto’s also not the shrimp that he used to be. He tucks the scroll under his arm and carefully relocks the cabinet before slipping toward the open window. No need for anyone to notice that something’s gone missing before he’s good and ready for the pursuit.

Back then, he didn’t understand what he was doing; this time he does. Granny Tsunade will be furious; Iruka-sensei will be disappointed; most of Konoha will once again be shouting for his head. Naruto doesn’t care. For seventeen years, he’s lived among people who’ve despised him. He’s willingly shed his blood for them; he’s also shed his best friend’s blood for them. He didn’t volunteer to carry this demon in his belly, but he’s done that for them too. And in return, he’s only been given silence.

Konoha owes him answers.

* * *

  
The clearing’s the first place Iruka-sensei will look for him, but Naruto plans to be gone before the search even begins. And it only seems fitting to bring his time as a Konoha shinobi full circle. Naruto earned his hitae-ite under that patch of sky; he’s prepared to lose it—and even his life—to get the answers he needs.

He sits down on the grass and sets the scroll on his lap. He doesn’t hesitate for more than a heartbeat before, for the second time, he breaks the seal.


End file.
